Alleged Misappropriation: Senate adjourns sitting on trade ministry 2022 budget

The Senate, on Monday, adjourned indefinitely its sitting on the ongoing defence of the 2022 Budget by the Ministry of Trade and Investment.

The Senate Committee on Trade and Investment led by Senator Saidu Alkali was irked by the failure of the Ministry to defer to the Parliament on its spending and inability to give details of the expenditures.

While making her presentation before the Committee, Minister of State, Trade and Investment Ambassador Aisha Katagum has disclosed that the Ministry retained 20% of its revenue generated to take care of certain expenses.

She could however not give details of how the Internally Generated Revenue was spent.

Chairman of the Committee, Senator Alkali, and his deputy, Senator Francis Fadahunsi expressed disappointment over the spending without Appropriation by the National Assembly.

Senator Alkali maintained that any public fund spent by any Ministries, Department and Agencies, MDAs without Appropriation would be viewed as misappropriation.

He said: “If you realise money under your IGR, you are supposed to give us how you spent it! Again, the money you spent, was it appropriated? If you spend money without Appropriation, that is misappropriation. If you retain N117m, you need to revert to us and get our approval. If you don’t do that, that is misappropriation. Who gave you the authority to spend?”

The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Evelyn Ngige who said she was new in the Ministry could not give the lawmakers any satisfactory response on how the 20% retained from the Internally Generated Revenue was spent.

The Senate Committee Chairman subsequently announced adjournment of the sitting.

“We are adjourning this sitting for you to give us details on how you spent your IGR and Intervention Fund before we can approve your 2022 Budget.”

Earlier while responding to the strong reservations expressed by Senator Fadahunsi over what he dismissed as a low revenue estimate, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry attributed it to insecurity, poor funding, and lack of logistics for the effective operation of the Ministry.

“Our people can’t move around in the North East and North West and southeast. It is affecting our revenue generation. We don’t have enough vehicles to move around. We move about with rickety vehicles. Without the necessary equipment and logistics, it will be difficult for us to meet our target.

“We fall back on the 20% because our annual budget is nothing to write home about. We need money to do surveillance activities and we fall back on this 20%. This isn’t funded on the budget line.”

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